Beverly Johnson Recalls Hotel Draining Pool After She Stepped Inside

It wasn’t even that long ago when Beverly Johnson was at the height of her game as a supermodel. But even in the 1980s, the first Black woman to cover Vogue faced extreme racism.

Johnson, 71, is opening up in her new one-woman show “Beverly Johnson In Vogue.” The show chronicles her life and career and the 50th anniversary of her groundbreaking Vogue cover. 

But even while she shattered glass ceilings, the fashion star recalls learning about a luxury hotel that drained a pool after she took a dip. It was 2012 while attending famed modeling agent Eileen Ford’s 90th birthday party when a fellow model reminded Johnson about the pool draining she had no idea even occurred. 

“All the models were there, and the very rich people, and one girl said to me, ‘Remember when they drained the pool?’ When you got in the pool at the so-and-so hotel?” Johnson told Page Six.

“I was like, ‘They did?’ And she said, ‘You didn’t know that?’”

Johnson noted the timeframe and dared not say the name of the hotel to avoid any legal issues. 

“This was during the ’80s, I would not say the name of the hotel because I don’t want to get sued,” she said.

But the reveal highlights the barriers Johnson crossed at a time when Black people were still looked at as less than, despite their success or status.

“So you get a lot of that. People draining pools, it was racist,” she quipped. “As a model, there were different kinds of things that would happen to me because I was Black.”

It took other models and fashion professionals championing her presence to help Johnson land the countless magazine covers she graced throughout her career. 

“Lauren Hutton would go to photo shoots and say out loud, ‘Why isn’t Beverly on the cover of magazines? She is just as pretty,’” Johnson recalled. “And at that time Lauren was on every cover. She was the it girl. So it was major for her to say that out loud at the time.”

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